[Inclosure J.]

CAMP NEAR SUFFOLK, VA., April 20, 1863.

Major L. M. SHUMAKER:

SIR: In obedience to your order, received this morning, I have the honor to make the following report of the condition of Stribling's battery. The battery was captured by the enemy yesterday evening, when the loss was as follows:

Commissioned officers..................................... 4

Non-commissioned officers................................. 8

Privates.................................................. 47

12-pounder guns........................................... 3

24-pounder howitzers...................................... 2

Chests with 12-pounder ammunition......................... 9

chests with 24-pounder ammunition......................... 6

The present condition of the battery is as follows:

Commissioned officers present for duty.................... 1

Non-commissioned officers present for duty................ 7

Privates present for duty................................. 83

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Aggregate present......................................... 91

Public horses............................................. 93

Wagons.................................................... 3

Ambulances................................................ 1

Forges.................................................... 1

Limbers to guns........................................... 5

Running-gear to caissons.................................. 5

Chests of 12-pounder gun ammunition....................... 3

Chests of 24-pounder howitzer ammunition.................. 2

REMARK.- In addition to the number of men stated above as present for duty there are 6 privates absent sick, who many reasonably be expected to join their company within a few weeks.

With respect, your obedient servant,

GRAY CARROLL,

Lieutenant, Commanding Stribling's Battery.

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHERN VIRGINIA,
May 25, 1863.

GENERAL: During the three weeks that Lieutenant-General Longstreet kept the enemy confined within Suffolk there was an effort made to remove the iron from the Seaboard and Roanoke Railroad. commencing near Suffolk, the engineer department succeeded in taking up about 3 miles of the rails and removed it toward Franklin and deposited it at or near a place known as Beaver Dam, where it could be protected by the forces near Franklin. After we withdrew from Suffolk the enemy discovered the effort made to secure the iron on our part, and soon marched to Carrsville with a force of between 9,000 and 10,000 infantry, 30 pieces of artillery, and cavalry, and immediately fortified their position and commenced taking up the track and removing it toward Suffolk. General Jenkins assembled all the available forces, and with about 3,000 men crossed over and drove in all their advanced lines behind their intrenchments and kept them there for near three days, causing them to abandon the road this side of Carrsville, and thus enabled our forces to save the road to that point, except a few hundred yards, and the iron brought from near Suffolk. The enemy